Kitchen is coming along nicely

Well after two weeks we have some work to talk about. So with the immortal words of the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner show, "On with the show this is it".

Last week Tuesday the counter top guys showed up and installed the kitchen counter. They also mounted the undermount sink at the same time. Took then maybe 1.5hrs after they brought in the four pieces until they were finished and left. And it looks great. We also spent some time in the garage working on shelving for some of my stuff

On Saturday all I did was work in the garage and fix my snowblower. I needed to weld up the drive pulley that had broken into two pieces. The pulley was built in two pieces and all they had was a single tack weld to hold the outer flange on and it finally broke. So when I welded it back on there are now 4 tacks and it will not separate again.

On Sunday went with Mom and the sister and her husband out to the local Lowes store to look through and pick out some tile for the backsplash over the counter in the kitchen. We finally settled on a colour and tile and the took all they had even the broken sets and brought them home. The tile is a tan coloured affair in brick pattern with approx 1in by 2in tiles. Here is a picture showing the tiles on the counter awaiting installation.

This past Tuesday I installed the kitchen sink taps and drain system. As well we installed the dishwasher into its receptacle. I am really glad the local hardware store where I work is only one kilometer away as I must have been there about 5 times that day picking up parts needed for the installation. For example I was installing the tap and the hoses that came with it were just long enough to reach the taps provided the tap receptacle was pointing up. This was the case with the hot water tap however the cold water tap was pointed straight out due to the addition of a tap and line for the fridge water. This necessitated a trip to the hardware store to pick up a hose extension. I also had to go there to pick up pieces to adapt the drain pipe to accept the dishwasher drain line as the original connector I had bought turned out to be to small. Oh well by the end of the day the dishwasher was installed, with the exception of the drain line and the taps and drain were installed on the sink and they worked great. Here is a picture of the two items.

 So today we hooked up the drain line and proceeded to run the dishwasher on its shortest cycle just to make sure it worked and there were no leaks. Worked like a charm. Reason I did not hook it up earlier as I wanted a few clamps to hold down the drain hose inside the corner cupboard and I forgot to pick them up until Thursday night after work. Once this was done we spent time laying out the tiles for the backsplash on the north wall of the kitchen. This is the wall with the stove opening. I had to carefully measure it out so we could cut out the plug openings and cut down a few sheets at the end of the wall. After this was done we spread out the glue and installed the tiles. It looks good and now I'll need to decide on which colour of grout to use to finish it off. Tomorrow I'll probably work on the south wall which is the short stub wall and once that's done we'll need to decide how to do the east wall behind the sink. Since there is the window there and two plugs and a switch I will need to decide whether to go high or low and how to match up the two ends since the north end is 20in high and the south end is only 8in high. Decisions, decisions. At least I have some help on the with Mom and the sister and husband giving me their opinions as well. Here are some pictures showing the backsplash installation.

Well that's all for now. I hope over the next week to finish the south wall backsplash and then hopefully on Tuesday and Wednesday we can finish installing the flooring in the hallway and kitchen area. After that it will be working on the back entrance area and deciding on which appliances to buy for my fridge, stove, washer, and dryer.

Take care and enjoy the winter, may it soon end for summer.

Harold